Mamata Banerjee fumes as PMO seeks civic body’s tax details

Acting under instructions from the prime minister’s office (PMO), income tax officials on Friday met the top brass of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and sought details of the revenue collected by the civic body through property tax post-demonetisation.

Acting under instructions from the prime minister’s office (PMO), income tax officials on Friday met the top brass of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and sought details of the revenue collected by the civic body through property tax post-demonetisation.

The development triggered angry reactions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee who is already busy garnering support against the Prime Minister’s move to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Sources said the PMO also sought details of tax revenue earned by the KMC from November 2015 to November 2016. The under secretary of municipal department has received a letter from the Centre in this regard to ensure the information reaches the government.

This development created a flutter in the secretariat and chief minister Mamata Banerjee termed it as “undue interference” of the Centre in state affairs. “The PMOcannot do it. They are trying to loot the money of the people. We will not allow it,” she alleged at the state secretariat.

It may add another page to the continuing chapter of confrontation between the Bengal chief minister and the Centre on a number of issues over the past few months, demonetisation triggering just the latest round of acrimony.

The KMC’s decision to accept property tax in old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes after demonetisation proved to be a major boon for the body that is constantly struggling to extract payment of unpaid property tax from the citizens.

The civic body collected Rs 40 crore till Thursday from the day of the announcement of demonetisation on November 8.

“The I-T officials want us to share the amount of the revenue and details of the tax payers who have paid a high amount. We have informed them that several people have cleared their long-pending taxes with the old notes,” said a KMC official.

Officers from tax department claimed property tax collection reached a record high on November 16 when they collected more than Rs 8 crore, the major share of it being in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

“In 2011, KMC had collected `6 crore on a single day through revenue tax. Subrata Mukherjee was the mayor and he waived off a considerable amount of fine that was due for years. In fact, even now, through this move we have collected a lot of long pending dues,” another KMC official added.